Hard Drive based system

Just spoke to Paul at TRL, they had to wait for some parts, but the Sony will be on it's way back to me today. So I probably won't have it until Monday. I'll let it run for a week or so before I do any critical listening. I'm off of work the following week so I'll be able to play with it for 10 straight days. By the time I have to come back to work, it should have 350-400 hours on it.

I'll post my impressions after the first 100 hours or so and then again after the first of the year. It should be close to burned in by then.

As for the digital input, not going to happen. He said it's very hard to get a player to interface with the outside world, unless it was designed that way from the start.

TRL modded Sony was delivered this morning. I know it needs to burn in for a few hundred hours, but it already sounds a LOT better than it did.

Ecruz,

Keep us posted. During the first 150 hours you'll hear things starting to change, then the next 300 hours you will get a another wave. After that the changes are much more subtle, but noticeable for 500+ hours.

I have mine on my rack now so I can get accustomed to looking at it before I send it off.

Okay, I've got a little over 200 hours on the TRL modded Sony. Supposedly it's not fully burned in until about 500 hours. So keep in mind, it's still got a ways to go. Also keep in mind, this is all in my room, with my equipment, in my opinion.

In it's stock form, the Sony sucked. It was harsh and lacked dynamics and detail, at either end of the frequency spectrum.

My last two cd players were the highly praised Rotel 1072 and the Marantz 8260. I was fairly happy with both. I thought the Marantz offered more detail and was more musical.

For close to the same price, the TRL modded Sony absolutely blows those two players away. This thing is AWSOME! I can honestly say, I have NEVER heard digital sound this good. And it keeps getting better. I don't just mean more detail, which it has, or lower lows and higher highs, which it has, or better dynamics, which it has, but it just sounds more like live music.

I've been listening to cd's as opposed to LP's for about the last 20 years. So I know that some of the recordings are crap. I know they can sometimes be harsh and digital. But I didn't know that a lot of this was coming from the player. I've listened to players up to about $3000 and every one had this "digital" sound. The TRL mod does not sound like any digital player I have ever heard. It's smooth, dynamic, lush, liquid, etc, etc, etc.

I know some people will never try this because it's a Sony and it only costs about $800. I almost didn't try it for the same reasons. I asked Paul at TRL twice, "I know you can mod my Marantz, are you sure the Sony will sound better?". His response was "I think the Sony, in some ways, sounds better than a modded SA-14". I haven't heard a modded SA-14, so I can't say. But I can say, I will be keeping this player for a LONG time. I would imagine I'd have to spend close to $5000 to better this thing in any significant way. Plus it plays dvd's and sacd's. What more could I ask for? Maybe a digital input.

Feel free to email me with questions.

E-

A couple of things I forgot to mention.

It's very quiet. Dead silent background.

Tons of detail. At first I didn't think so, because there is NO harshness. Obviously something I've come to associate with detail.

Because it's not harsh, I can listen louder without ringing my ears. I can listen to this thing for hours and hours.

Very wide, deep soundstage. Not only outside of my speakers, but outside of my walls.